This is something that should be pretty simple. Congress has voted more than 70 times since the Reagan administration to raise the federal debt ceiling. Seven such votes were cast in the administration of the previous president.
That it’s all the sudden a sin to do so is politics.
This is no time for politics.
Remember the recession? It’s hard for some to forget. For me, I had to hold on for dear life, scratch, claw and anything and everything else you want to say cliche-wise to make it through. At the depths, I stayed up many nights thinking through what bankruptcy would do to me.
Fortunately we were able to get back on our feet – and actually, we’ve been quite fortunate. From the depths of despair, now it seems that we don’t have enough time in the day most days to do what we need to do.
Again, we’ve been quite fortunate.
So when I read that the silly partisan posturing over raising the debt ceiling could very well push us back to another recession, well, now, I don’t know how that can make any sense.
Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, when you vote, key to your vote, most likely, is which side will do the best job creating and maintaining a stable economy.
The pending default on our debt obligations will push up the cost for the federal government to pay on the national debt. That takes more money out of the economy – for what? Not to go to seniors on fixed incomes, not to go to soldiers and police and emergency personnel keeping us safe.
Not to go to education. Not to go to long-overdue road improvements that keep business moving.
Not to go to creating new jobs.
Nope. It would cover the asses of two groups of people who obviously can’t do what we hired them to do.
Republicans. And Democrats.
Memo to the politicians: You screw this up, and it seems pretty clear that you’re intent on doing just that, you’re done.
Bob Goodlatte – done.
Barack Obama – done.
Mark Warner – we can’t vote on you until 2014, but consider yourself toast.
I think I speak for the vast majority of Americans who don’t care if the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party gets its way, or if the Blue Dogs or liberals in the Democratic Party end up in ascendancy, or what-the-hell-ever. We just want to be able to pay our rent or our mortgage, keep paying the car payments, get groceries at the store, maybe have some extra spending money for something fun to do every so often.
Get the message, powers-that-be? I doubt it. You guys and gals are too busy drafting press releases about how hard you’re working for us to actually get anything done.
This is no way to run a country.